- Oct 30, 2000
- 14,665
- 440
- 126
Intro story you can skip if you are lazy
So my fiancee, who would turn my house into a zoo/pet store if I would let her, finally convinced me into getting her some new pets. I already had two cats, accidentally ended up with them but they are great and have had once since birth. My fiancee came with her dog which I absolutely hate the little terror. She also came with a fish tank, but I really don't consider those pets as much as I think of them as furniture you have to maintain daily. Kind of like having to put the toilet seat down all the time since my fiancee moved in. See, furniture with daily maintenance.
Despite 2 cats and a dog, my GF has been wheedling me to get her something else. What she really would love to have is a Great Dance, Dalmatian (or 101 of them),a husky, a duck, a pot bellied pig, some birds, turtles, snakes, lizards, and various rodents. I have basically told her no to all of those. I like big dogs, but I don't have the room for one in my house or yard. I don't like birds of any sort that make way too much noise (I like my sleep), and I don't want a pig for a pet either. I told her the only pork coming into my house is bacon. Maybe a spiral cut ham hock.
I wasn't keen on the idea of rodents as pets, but at least they would be more manageable than something much bigger. So I started looking and reading on the different types of rodent like pets that you keep in a cage of sorts. I wanted something clean, low maintenance, friendly, and a decent life span. I know my fiancee and if something dies after a year or two that she bonded with it then I'll be up for a week as she cries her eyes out. It happened when a couple goldfish died. I didn't sleep much that week. so after much research, I narrowed my choices down to two. Unfortunately when I took her to the pet store I couldn't convince her which type of rodent to take with us either. So as a sucker I got her both types. So what did I get?
Intro story over with now
I got 2 Degues and a Chinchilla. I originally picked up a 40L reptile terrarium for them, but that was really too small for the Chinchilla. The degu's are are both male and babies at maybe 4 weeks of age. They are pretty small at an inch and a half long or so. They are pretty cool at least. They even sing and vocalize to you when you hold them which I found entertaining. They actually love to be held too.
I would have bought a baby chinchilla, but couldn't find any around here for sale. It was a pain finding any place that had them or even private breeders through the classifieds/CL. I think it has to do with the hot South Texas weather. I did eventually find them at two places. At one store they had them for $200 each, and every single one was a skittish as heck big adult. I didn't like the skittishness of those. I called around and found 1 at one petsmart location here of all places. Out of a dozen petsmart stores around town only one had one. It was more adolescent in age and only $150. Best thing was it doesn't mind being held or petted. It didn't try to run or bite me so I decided to give it a try. I did end up having to buy a bigger cage for it. Man those things are expensive. I found a store that had one in a corner for cats that was large but had no price tag. The bottom pan was a bit cracked as well. Everything was there, but they had no box. The store owner didn't recall how much it went for so asked how much I'd be willing to pay for it. I said I was looking to find something for no more than $100. He said $110 and it's yours. Shitty move by him but whatever.
I ended up looking up the cage on amazon or one very similar to it. It's $144 off Amazon so I don't think it was that bad of a deal.
Well here is a quick picture of the Chinchilla (before I got the bigger cage)
and a picture of the degus
So my fiancee, who would turn my house into a zoo/pet store if I would let her, finally convinced me into getting her some new pets. I already had two cats, accidentally ended up with them but they are great and have had once since birth. My fiancee came with her dog which I absolutely hate the little terror. She also came with a fish tank, but I really don't consider those pets as much as I think of them as furniture you have to maintain daily. Kind of like having to put the toilet seat down all the time since my fiancee moved in. See, furniture with daily maintenance.
Despite 2 cats and a dog, my GF has been wheedling me to get her something else. What she really would love to have is a Great Dance, Dalmatian (or 101 of them),a husky, a duck, a pot bellied pig, some birds, turtles, snakes, lizards, and various rodents. I have basically told her no to all of those. I like big dogs, but I don't have the room for one in my house or yard. I don't like birds of any sort that make way too much noise (I like my sleep), and I don't want a pig for a pet either. I told her the only pork coming into my house is bacon. Maybe a spiral cut ham hock.
I wasn't keen on the idea of rodents as pets, but at least they would be more manageable than something much bigger. So I started looking and reading on the different types of rodent like pets that you keep in a cage of sorts. I wanted something clean, low maintenance, friendly, and a decent life span. I know my fiancee and if something dies after a year or two that she bonded with it then I'll be up for a week as she cries her eyes out. It happened when a couple goldfish died. I didn't sleep much that week. so after much research, I narrowed my choices down to two. Unfortunately when I took her to the pet store I couldn't convince her which type of rodent to take with us either. So as a sucker I got her both types. So what did I get?
Intro story over with now
I got 2 Degues and a Chinchilla. I originally picked up a 40L reptile terrarium for them, but that was really too small for the Chinchilla. The degu's are are both male and babies at maybe 4 weeks of age. They are pretty small at an inch and a half long or so. They are pretty cool at least. They even sing and vocalize to you when you hold them which I found entertaining. They actually love to be held too.
I would have bought a baby chinchilla, but couldn't find any around here for sale. It was a pain finding any place that had them or even private breeders through the classifieds/CL. I think it has to do with the hot South Texas weather. I did eventually find them at two places. At one store they had them for $200 each, and every single one was a skittish as heck big adult. I didn't like the skittishness of those. I called around and found 1 at one petsmart location here of all places. Out of a dozen petsmart stores around town only one had one. It was more adolescent in age and only $150. Best thing was it doesn't mind being held or petted. It didn't try to run or bite me so I decided to give it a try. I did end up having to buy a bigger cage for it. Man those things are expensive. I found a store that had one in a corner for cats that was large but had no price tag. The bottom pan was a bit cracked as well. Everything was there, but they had no box. The store owner didn't recall how much it went for so asked how much I'd be willing to pay for it. I said I was looking to find something for no more than $100. He said $110 and it's yours. Shitty move by him but whatever.
I ended up looking up the cage on amazon or one very similar to it. It's $144 off Amazon so I don't think it was that bad of a deal.
Well here is a quick picture of the Chinchilla (before I got the bigger cage)
and a picture of the degus
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